Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Aftermath of the Cows Getting Out

Cows are a herd animal. They like to stick together, so when one finds a way to get out of the pen, the rest follow. Luckily, only three calves managed to escape, so it was easier to get them all back in the pen. However, the path of destruction they left during their time of freedom looks like the whole herd got out.

Adam hauled calves to market on Tuesday afternoon, and a gate did not get chained in the sorting pen. He has three calves in a separate pen that are getting fed to be butchered, and they pushed open the gate that was not chained. Adam said it was his fault, he just forgot to chain the gate after they loaded and hauled the calves the day before.

Adam was able to get them back in pen with the help of a feed bucket. Once all of the excitement calmed down, we surveyed the scene. Adam and I were not happy with what we saw. What was once the smooth surface of our newly seeded yard was now cratered with hoof prints. Then we saw the tree. One of our newly planted Red Sunset Maples was broken in two. Yes, profanities did fly after discovering this. Once the ground thaws out we will be out in the yard with a rake trying to smooth it out. We will also be making a trip to the greenhouse to purchase a new tree.

I'm pretty sure Adam will not forget to chain the gate in the future.


Our yard now looks like the surface of the moon.


The poor Red Sunset Maple.



Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Farm Chores

The animals on a farm or ranch come first before anything else. This includes making sure the livestock and other animals are taken care of before sitting down to have a meal ourselves. Adam begins his day by getting up early (he usually leaves the house between 6:30 and 7:00AM) to take care of the animals. The morning chores consist of feeding our Border Collie, Bill, our cat, Hank, and feeding the cattle. The cattle get fed silage, hay, and ground corn in the morning. If Adam has time, he will then come back inside and grab some breakfast before moving on to the other tasks of the day. At night the cattle chores consist of feeding the calves buckets of ground corn. This is usually the last thing Adam does for the day. Once the chores are done he can come inside, relax and have dinner.


This is the auger system used to remove the silage from
the Harvestore silo and get it into the feed truck. The
conveyor belt takes the silage up an incline and dumps
it into the back of the truck.

The feed truck parked in the bay. It is being loaded
with silage by the conveyor belt.

Here comes the feed truck! At this point the
calves know breakfast is about to be served.
They start making their way down to the feed
bunk to reserve their spot to eat.

Adam feeding the calves ground corn.


Mmmm. This is good stuff!




Adam feeding the calves silage from the feed truck on a windy
Sunday morning.

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